Information Based Life View

ABSTRACT

A method for enabling a user to customize, prioritize, and view information filtered to align with the user&#39;s life state that includes interaction with an online market place. The user provides priority, positioning, and custom information about the user&#39;s life state which allows the user to view information in a life view. This information may include at least demographic information, logistical information, ethnic information, social information and psychological information. The partners may use the information about the user&#39;s life to filter its information according to the information about the user&#39;s life, which is then viewed in a life view by a user, according to the user defined positioning, prioritization, and other custom parameters. The method also enables the user to view partner and user participation in a marketplace to procure the information about the user&#39;s life, user ratings according to the user&#39;s behavior, and partner ratings according to the partner&#39;s information delivery.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to the field ofuser displayed data and the layout of the data by the use of and in someembodiments, specifically relate to a custom configured portal zones,used in conjunction with an information delivery system.

BACKGROUND

Users today rely heavily on the Internet to manage information. Popularinformation portals such as Microsoft's MSN® network and Google®'siGoogle compete against one another to deliver more customizedinformation to the Users. Facebook®, MySpace, and LinkedIn® are alsoexamples of information portal variants, and these portals focus oninformation management under the context of relationships. Web portalsmay be available to the Users as part of a search engine (e.g.,Microsoft® Bing, Google®, Yahoo®) or simply as an information managementinterface (e.g., iGoogle). Generally, the portal may rely on thedefinition of user preferences, which are used by underlying searchengines or partnerships with information providing organizations todisplay information for the user. The information may be rearranged onthe portal, somewhat custom filtered, and also coupled with searchengine functionality. Accurate information is important to the users andcorrespondingly the advertisers and/or content providers. The accuracyand utility of the information may be based on the filters andpreferences selected by the Users and how effective the portal queriesand displays the information. When a portal is perceived by a user asaccurate and useful, the user is more likely to continue using the sameportal for the user's more static informational needs. These methods ofdisplaying information (portals) may be acceptable to the Users forgeneral and high level information needs. However, these portals fallshort in providing a true depiction of a user's life view, and theseportals do not demonstrate a deep relationship between the user,organizations, and information delivered by the organizations.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

For some embodiments, a method to enable a user to manage an informationlife view that is based on filtered information that dynamicallystructures and displays the information about the user's life accordingto the information that is most relevant to the user at any given pointin time. The life view managing information regarding the user's lifeview may be referred to as the user's life view. The user's life viewmay include many categorical information zones related to the user'slife view, based on filters in at least areas such as demographic,ethnic, social and psychological aspects. The user may define thefilters, as part of the SpotMi Life view. The user may also define whichcategorical areas display, how the information changes, and criteriathat determines how the categorical zones dynamically change. The usermay specify the categories, layouts, and information to change accordingto the user's life view, which is based on the underlying SpotMiInformation Delivery System. The information category layouts andcontent are prioritized at least based on user settings that determinepreference, alignment scores derived from the underlying SpotMiInformation Delivery System, and other life view parameters (forexample, the user can configure future events and important dates todynamically trigger layout changes to display content relevant to thesedates and events as they approach the current date). The user may alsodefine time-phased rotation of information categories, which can bebased at least on month, season, events, years, career states,geography. This embodiment may interface with the underlying SpotMiInformation Delivery System to allow users to rate the alignment for theinformation delivered to the life view. The life view information ispresented to, and modified by, the user via the user's life viewsettings or some embodiments may also include various devices,appliances, and systems. A marketplace may integrate with the portal toallow suppliers of information to push specific information to theuser's portal, through the underlying SpotMi Information Delivery Systemand the SpotMi Information Marketplace.

To this end, in an exemplary embodiment, a computer-implemented method,comprising: receiving, prioritizing, positioning, and displayinginformation about and relevant to a user's life from a user who is aregistered member of an information delivery system, wherein theinformation about and relevant to the user's life includes at least (a)demographic information, (b) ethnic information, (c) social information,and (d) psychological information; enabling the user to grantpermissions to a partner to access the information about and relevant tothe user's life, wherein the partner is also a registered member of theinformation delivery system, and wherein the user grants the permissionto the partner by controlling visibility of the partner to theinformation about and relevant to the user's life and by controllingfrequency, extent, type, and volume of filtered information that ispushed by the partner, in order for the partner to display customizedinformation relevant to the user's life view; and receiving the filteredinformation from the partner, wherein the filtered information isgenerated by the partner based on applying the information about andrelevant to the user's life to information of the partner, wherein theinformation about and relevant to the user's life is provided by theuser using a client computing system associated with the informationdelivery system, wherein the information about and relevant to theuser's life is received by a server computing system associated with theinformation delivery system, and wherein the information about theuser's life is received, prioritized, positioned, and displayedaccording to the user's life.

In another exemplary embodiment, comprising: providing a life view toenable the user to view the filtered information, wherein the filteredinformation may be a subset of the information of the partner, andwherein the life view associated with the user is independentlyconfigurable from a life view associated with another user of theinformation delivery system.

In another exemplary embodiment, comprising: providing and displayinginformation from a marketplace to enable partners to procure theinformation about the user's life. Wherein the user may prioritize,position, and display information regarding marketplace interests, bids,offers, and transactions.

In another exemplary embodiment, comprising: establishing a datastructure to enable the user to provide the information about andrelevant to the user's life, the data structure including fields relatedto one another, wherein each of the fields is associated with a value,and wherein the data structure includes multiple levels such that afield at a lower level is to provide more detail information and valuethan a corresponding field at a higher level. Wherein information may bedisplayed, prioritized, and positioned in a life view from multiplelevels according to the user's life.

In another exemplary embodiment, comprising: automatically populatingthe fields of the data structure with a set of baseline values; andenabling the user to update the baseline values and non-baseline valuesto accurately reflect the user's life. Wherein baseline information maybe displayed, prioritized, and positioned in a life view from multiplelevels according to the user's life.

In another exemplary embodiment, comprising: enabling the user to updatethe baseline values and the non-baseline values using a mobile computingsystem and a mobile application associated with the information deliverysystem. Wherein information may be displayed, prioritized, andpositioned in a life view on a computing system, mobile application, andby other embodiments herein.

In another exemplary embodiment, comprising: enabling the user to ratethe partner based on whether the filtered information from the partneris aligned with the information about and relevant to the user's life;and enabling the partner to rate the user based on whether theinformation about and relevant to the user's life is aligned withbehavior of the user when the user visits a website associated with thepartner. Wherein the user rating for the partner may be used as asetting in the user's prioritization, positioning, and displaying ofthat partner's information in a life view. Wherein the partner ratingfor the user may be visible in the user's prioritization, positioning,and displaying of that partner's information in a life view.

In another exemplary embodiment, comprising: storing the informationabout and relevant to the user's life and life view in a securedrelational database associated with the information delivery system; andenabling the information about and relevant to the user's life to beaccessed by the partner when the user visits a website of the partner;and enabling the information about and relevant to the user's life to becustomized and accessed by the user through the user's life view.

In another exemplary embodiment, wherein customized web pages arepresented to the user when the user visits the website of the partner,and wherein the customized web pages are generated by the partner basedon the information about and relevant to the user's life. Wherein theuser may access these customized web pages from a life view.

In another exemplary embodiment, wherein filtered search results arepresented to the user when the user visits the website of the partner,and wherein the filtered search results are generated by the partnerbased on search parameters provided by the user and based on theinformation about and relevant to the user's life. Wherein the searchparameters and search results generated by the partner may be factoredinto the information pushed by the partner into a life view.

Still another exemplary embodiment, a computer-readable media thatstores instructions, which when executed by a machine, cause the machineto perform operations comprising: receiving information about a user'slife from a user who is a registered member of an information deliverysystem, wherein the information about the user's life includes at leastdemographic, ethnic, social and psychological information; enabling theuser to set parameters to control (a) access to the information aboutthe user's life by a partner and (b) volume and frequency of filteredinformation to be received from the partner on behalf of the user,wherein the partner is also a registered member of the informationdelivery system; receiving the filtered information from the partner,wherein the filtered information is generated by applying the parametersto information of the partner; and prioritizing, positioning, andpresenting the filtered information to a user life view.

In another exemplary embodiment, wherein the user further sets theparameters to control (a) frequency of receiving the filteredinformation from the partner, and (b) priority, order, and customizedfiltering of information to be delivered to a user life view based onthe user's life and display preferences.

In another exemplary embodiment, comprising: establishing a datastructure to enable the user to provide the information about the user'slife, the data structure including fields related to one another,wherein each of the fields is associated with a value representing oneaspect of the user's life; automatically populating the fields of thedata structure with a set of baseline values; enabling the user tomanually update the baseline values or non-baseline values to moreaccurately reflect the user's life; enabling the user to rate thepartner based on whether the filtered information pushed by the partneris aligned with the information about the user's life; and enabling thepartner to rate the user based on whether the information about theuser's life is aligned with behavior of the user when the user visits awebsite associated with the partner; and presenting the baseline valuesor updated values, and the partner and user ratings, in a user lifeview, according to the user's prioritization, positioning, and customdisplay settings.

In another exemplary embodiment, comprising: providing a marketplace forthe partner or other users to purchase the information about the user'slife; and enabling the partner to use the information about the user'slife to customize web pages of the partner when the user visits a website of the partner; and enabling marketplace information to bedisplayed in a user life view, according to priority, positioning, andcustom display settings; and enabling a user to interact with and usemarketplace information in the user's life view.

In another exemplary embodiment, wherein the marketplace is anauction-based marketplace, wherein the customized web pages include webpages that present filtered search results when the web site isassociated with a search engine, and wherein the customized life viewinclude filtered, prioritized, custom positioned information, and customsettings associated with a life state, market place, and life view.

In another exemplary embodiment, comprising: enabling the user to causethe values of the fields of the data structure to be updated using amobile application associated with the information delivery system; andwherein the user may access, interact with, and modify settings for alife view according to the embodiments herein.

In another exemplary embodiment, wherein the mobile application isconfigured to enable the user to provide user experience and to causeone or more values of the fields of the data structure to be updatedaccording to the user experience; and wherein the updated informationand user experience may be accessed, updated, and interacted with in auser's life view.

Still in another exemplary embodiment, a system, comprising: aninformation delivery server connected to a network, the informationdelivery server configured to: (a) enable a user to provide informationabout a user's life using a client computing system coupled with theinformation delivery server, wherein the information about the user'slife includes at least demographic, ethnic, social and psychologicalinformation, and wherein the information about the user's life is storedin a database coupled with the information delivery server, the clientcomputing system connected to the network; (b) enable the user to setparameters that control access to the information about the user's lifeby a partner and volume and frequency of information to be received fromthe partner on behalf of the user, wherein the information received fromthe partner is to be aligned with the information about the user's life,and wherein the partner is associated with a partner server connected tothe network; (c) enable the partner to rate the user based on whetherbehavior of the user when the user visits a web site of the partner isaligned with the information about the user's life; (d) enable the userto rate the partner based on whether the information received from thepartner is aligned with the information about the user's life; and (e)enable the user to access, update, and interact with a user life view,which contains custom information, customized according to theembodiments herein, wherein the custom information may be furthercustomized by prioritizing, positioning, and other user defined customsettings that change how the information is displayed to a user in auser life view.

In another exemplary embodiment, wherein the information delivery serveris further configured to (a) provide a marketplace to enable the partnerto purchase the information about the user's life and (b) provide a lifeview to present the information received from the partner to the useraccording to priorities, positioning settings, and other user definedsettings.

In another exemplary embodiment, wherein the user and the partner areregistered with the information delivery server, and wherein theinformation delivery server is further configured to (a) receive updatedinformation about the user's life from the user via a mobile computingdevice, and (b) enable the partner to access the information about theuser's life to customize the website of the partner according to theinformation about the user's life; and (c) enable the user to access,update, and interact with a user life view via a mobile computingdevice.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The multiple drawings refer to the embodiments of the invention. Whileembodiments of the invention described herein is subject to variousmodifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof havebeen shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein bedescribed in detail.

FIG. 1 illustrates one example of a computing device that may be used,in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 2A illustrates an example of a network that may be used to pullfiltered information, in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 3A illustrates an example structure of the life view, in accordancewith some embodiments.

FIG. 3B illustrates an example of a collection life states, inaccordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 3C illustrates an example of granting access to the life view, inaccordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 3D illustrates an example diagram of a group of partners, inaccordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 3E illustrates an example diagram of the life view, in accordancewith some embodiments.

FIG. 3F illustrates an example diagram of Life State Categories,Attributes, and the life view, in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 4 illustrates example applications that may be used to enable theusers to receive the filtered information from the partners, inaccordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a network with an information deliveryserver, in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example flow diagram of a process that may beperformed by an information delivery system life view to display thelife states, in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example flow diagram of a process that may beperformed by an information delivery system life view to allow the usersto access the filtered information, in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example flow diagram of a process that may beperformed on an information delivery server to enable automaticallyupdating the user's life view, in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example flow diagram of a process used to rate apartner through the life view, in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example flow diagram of a process used to rate auser and convey the rating through the user's life view, in accordancewith some embodiments.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example flow diagram of a process used to showinformation delivery through the user's life view, in accordance withsome embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

For some embodiments, a method for displaying delivered information isdisclosed. The method comprises enabling a user to register and become amember of a life view based on custom delivered information. Informationis displayed based on parameters the user provides about the user's lifewhich is also known as a life state. The user's life state may span manyareas including at least demographic information, ethnic information,social information, behavioral information, and psychologicalinformation. The user may grant third parties permission to deliverinformation to the user's life state. The third parties are also membersof the information delivery system, which in turn are allowed to deliverinformation to the user's life view. The third parties may use theuser's life state to filter information for the user.

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth,such as examples of specific data signals, components, connections,displays, configurations, etc. in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the present invention. It will be apparent, however, toone skilled in the art that the present invention may be practicedwithout these specific details. In other instances, well knowncomponents or methods have not been described in detail but rather inblock diagrams in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the presentinvention. Thus, the specific details set forth are merely exemplary.The specific details may be varied from and still be contemplated to bewithin the spirit and scope of the present invention.

The present invention also relates to apparatus for performing theoperations herein. This apparatus may be specifically constructed forthe required purposes, or it may comprise a general purpose computerselectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored inthe computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a computerreadable storage medium, such as, but is not limited to, any type ofdisk including floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, andmagnetic-optical disks, read-only memories (ROMs), random accessmemories (RAMs), EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, or any typeof media suitable for storing electronic instructions, and each coupledwith a computing system bus. Portions of any modules or componentsdescribed herein may be implemented in lines of code in software,configured logic gates in software, or a combination of both, and theportions implemented in software are tangibly stored on a computerreadable storage medium.

The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently relatedto any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general purposesystems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachingsherein, or it may prove convenient to construct more specializedapparatus to perform the required method blocks. The required structurefor a variety of these systems will appear from the description below.

In the following description of exemplary embodiments, reference is madeto the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and in which it isshown by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the inventioncan be practiced. It is to be understood that other embodiments can beused and structural changes can be made without departing from the scopeof the embodiments of this invention. As used herein, the terms“couple,” “connect,” and “attach” are interchangeable and includevarious forms of connecting one part to another either directly orindirectly. Also, it should be appreciated that one or more structuralfeatures described in one embodiment could be implemented in a differentembodiment, even if not specifically mentioned as being a featurethereof.

Computer System

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of an example computing system thatmay use an embodiment of one or more of the software applicationsdiscussed herein, in accordance with some example embodiments. Thecomputing system environment 100 is only one example of a suitablecomputing environment, such as a client device, and is not intended tosuggest any limitation as to the scope of use or functionality of thedesign. Neither should the computing environment 100 be interpreted ashaving any dependency or requirement relating to any one or combinationof components illustrated in the exemplary operating environment 100.Embodiments of the invention may be implemented on any type of computer,device, apparatus, or even machine that make use of the computerenvironment 100. For example, the device may be a medical device thatdisplays the user's medical history or current conditions.

The design is operational with numerous other general purpose or specialpurpose computing system environments or configurations. Examples ofwell-known computing systems, environments, and/or configurations thatmay be suitable for use with the design include, but are not limited to,personal computers, server computers, hand-held or laptop devices,multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, set top boxes,programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframecomputers, distributed computing environments that include any of theabove systems or devices, automotive and informational appliances, andthe like.

The design may be described in the general context of computing deviceexecutable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by acomputer. Generally, the program modules include routines, programs,objects, components, data structures, etc., that perform particulartasks or implement particular abstract data types. Those skilled in theart can implement the description and/or figures herein ascomputer-executable instructions, which can be embodied on any form ofcomputing machine readable media discussed below.

The design may also be practiced in distributed computing environmentswhere tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linkedthrough a communications network. In a distributed computingenvironment, program modules may be located in both local and remotecomputer storage media including memory storage devices.

With reference to FIG. 1, an exemplary computing type system forimplementing the design includes a general-purpose computing device inthe form of a computing device 110. Components of computing device 110may include, but are not limited to, a processing unit 120 having one ormore processing cores, a system memory 130, and a system bus 121 thatcouples various system components including the system memory to theprocessing unit 120. The system bus 121 may be any of several types ofbus structures including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheralbus, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. By wayof example, and not limitation, such architectures include IndustryStandard Architecture (ISA) bus, Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus,Enhanced ISA (EISA) bus, Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA)locale bus, and Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus.

Computing device 110 typically includes a variety of computing machinereadable media. Computing machine readable media can be any availablemedia that can be accessed by computing device 110 and includes bothvolatile and nonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media. Byway of example, and not limitation, computing machine readable mediumsuses include storage of information, such as computer readableinstructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Computerstorage mediums include, but are not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flashmemory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD)or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape,magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any othermedium which can be used to store the desired information and which canbe accessed by computer 100. Communication media typically embodiescomputer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, orother transport mechanism and includes any information delivery media.

The system memory 130 includes computer storage media in the form ofvolatile and/or nonvolatile memory such as read only memory (ROM) 131and random access memory (RAM) 132. A basic input/output system 133(BIOS), containing the basic routines that help to transfer informationbetween elements within computing device 110, such as during start-up,is typically stored in ROM 131. RAM 132 typically contains data and/orprogram modules that are immediately accessible to and/or presentlybeing operated on by processing unit 120. By way of example, and notlimitation, FIG. 1 illustrates operating system 134, applicationprograms 135, other program modules 136, and program data 137.

The computing device 110 may also include other removable/non-removablevolatile/nonvolatile computer storage media. By way of example only,FIG. 1 illustrates a hard disk drive 141 that reads from or writes tonon-removable, nonvolatile magnetic media, a magnetic disk drive 151that reads from or writes to a removable, nonvolatile magnetic disk 152,and an optical disk drive 155 that reads from or writes to a removable,nonvolatile optical disk 156 such as a CD ROM or other optical media.Other removable/non-removable, volatile/nonvolatile computer storagemedia that can be used in the exemplary operating environment include,but are not limited to, USB drives and devices, magnetic tape cassettes,flash memory cards, digital versatile disks, digital video tape, solidstate RAM, solid state ROM, and the like. The hard disk drive 141 istypically connected to the system bus 121 through a non-removable memoryinterface such as interface 140, and magnetic disk drive 151 and opticaldisk drive 155 are typically connected to the system bus 121 by aremovable memory interface, such as interface 150.

The drives and their associated computer storage media discussed aboveand illustrated in FIG. 1, provide storage of computer readableinstructions, data structures, program modules and other data for thecomputing device 110. In FIG. 1, for example, hard disk drive 141 isillustrated as storing operating system 144, application programs 145,other program modules 146, and program data 147. Note that thesecomponents can either be the same as or different from operating system134, application programs 135, other program modules 136, and programdata 137. Operating system 144, application programs 145, other programmodules 146, and program data 147 are given different numbers here toillustrate that, at a minimum, they are different copies.

A user may enter commands and information into the computing device 110through input devices such as a keyboard 162, a microphone 163, and apointing device 161, such as a mouse, trackball or touch pad. Otherinput devices (not shown) may include a joystick, game pad, satellitedish, scanner, or the like. These and other input devices are oftenconnected to the processing unit 120 through a user input interface 160that is coupled to the system bus, but they may be connected by otherinterface and bus structures, such as a parallel port, game port or auniversal serial bus (USB). A monitor or display 191 or other type ofdisplay device is also connected to the system bus 121 via an interface,such as a video interface 190. In addition to the monitor, computers mayalso include other peripheral output devices such as speakers 197 andprinter 196, which may be connected through an output peripheralinterface 190.

The computing device 110 may operate in a networked environment usinglogical connections to one or more remote computers, such as a remotecomputer 180. The remote computer 180 may be a personal computer, ahand-held device, a server, a router, a network PC, a peer device orother common network node, and typically includes many or all of theelements described above relative to the computing device 110. Thelogical connections depicted in FIG. 1 include a local area network(LAN) 171 and a wide area network (WAN) 173, but may also include othernetworks. Such networking environments are commonplace in offices,enterprise-wide computer networks, intranets, extranets, and theInternet. A browser application may be resident on the computing deviceand stored in the memory.

When used in a LAN networking environment, the computing device 110 isconnected to the LAN 171 through a network interface or adapter 170.When used in a WAN networking environment, the computing device 110typically includes a communication module 172 or other means forestablishing communications over the WAN 173, such as the Internet. Thecommunication module 172 may be a modem used for wired, wirelesscommunication or both. The communication module 172 may be internal orexternal, may be connected to the system bus 121 via the user-inputinterface 160, or other appropriate mechanism. In a networkedenvironment, program modules depicted relative to the computing device110, or portions thereof, may be stored in the remote memory storagedevice. By way of example, and not limitation, FIG. 1 illustrates remoteapplication programs 185 as residing on remote computer 180. It will beappreciated that the network connections shown are exemplary and othermeans of establishing a communications link between the computers may beused.

It should be noted that the present design can be carried out on acomputing system such as that described with respect to FIG. 1. However,the present design can be carried out on a server, a computer devoted tomessage handling, or on a distributed system in which different portionsof the present design are carried out on different parts of thedistributed computing system.

Another device that may be coupled to bus 111 is a power supply such asa battery and Alternating Current adapter circuit. As discussed above,the DC power supply may be a battery, a fuel cell, or similar DC powersource that needs to be recharged on a periodic basis. For wirelesscommunication, the communication module 172 may employ a WirelessApplication Protocol to establish a wireless communication channel. Thecommunication module 172 may implement a wireless networking standardsuch as Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11standard, IEEE std. 802.11-1999, published by IEEE in 1999. Otherwireless communication methods that may also be used may includeBluetooth, Radio Frequency, etc.

While other systems may use, in an independent manner, variouscomponents that may be used in the design, a comprehensive, integratedsystem that addresses the multiple advertising system points ofvulnerability described herein does not exist. Examples of mobilecomputing devices may be a laptop computer, a cell phone, a personaldigital assistant, or other similar device with on board processingpower and wireless communications ability that is powered by a DirectCurrent (DC) power source that supplies DC voltage to the mobile deviceand that is solely within the mobile computing device and needs to berecharged on a periodic basis, such as a fuel cell or a battery.

It is possible for some embodiments of the invention to have a computingenvironment 100 that entails memory and display functions without aprocessing function. For example, a third party may provide customizedinformation to a user, which is relayed to a device for display onlywith no data manipulation necessary.

Network Environment

FIG. 2A illustrates a network environment 200 in which the techniquesdescribed may be applied, in accordance with some example embodiments.The network environment 200 has a network 202 that connects servercomputing systems 204-1 through 204-n, and at least one or more clientcomputing systems 208-1. As shown, there may be many server computingsystems 204-1 through 204-n and many client computing systems 208-1through 208-n connected to each other via a network 202, which may be,for example, the Internet. Note, that alternatively the network 202might be or include one or more of: an optical network, the Internet, aLocal Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN), satellite link, fibernetwork, cable network, or a combination of these and/or others. It isto be further appreciated that the use of the terms client computingsystem and server computing system is for clarity in specifying whoinitiates a communication (the client computing system) and who responds(the server computing system). No hierarchy is implied unless explicitlystated. Both functions may be in a single communicating device, in whichcase the client-server and server-client relationship may be viewed aspeer-to-peer. Thus, if two systems such as the client computing system208-1 and the server computing system 204-1 can both initiate andrespond to communications, their communication may be viewed aspeer-to-peer. Likewise, communications between the client computingsystems 204-1, 204-2 and the server computing systems 208-1, 208-2 maybe viewed as peer-to-peer if each such communicating device is capableof initiation and response to communication. One or more of the servercomputing systems 204-1 to 204-n may be associated with a database suchas, for example, the databases 206-1 to 206-n. A firewall such as, forexample, the firewall 220 between a client computing system 208-3 andthe network 202, may be used to protect data integrity. Another firewallexample is the firewall 221 positioned between the server 204-2 and thenetwork 202. Although not shown, other devices (e.g., proxy servers,etc.) may also be connected to the network 202.

FIG. 2A also illustrates a block diagram of an embodiment of a servercomputing system to display information, such as a web page, etc. A uservia a browser from the client computing system 208-1 may interact withthe web page, and then supply input to the query/fields and/or servicepresented by a user interface of the application. The web page may beserved by a web server computing system 204-1 on any Hypertext MarkupLanguage (HTML) or Wireless Access Protocol (WAP) enabled clientcomputing system 208-1 or any equivalent thereof. For example, theclient mobile computing system 208-1 may be a smart phone, a touch pad,a laptop, a netbook, etc. The client computing system 208-1 may host abrowser to interact with the server computing system 204-1. Eachapplication, widget, plug-in, etc. has a code scripted to perform thefunctions that the software component is coded to carry out such aspresenting fields and icons to take details of desired information. Thelife view applications may be hosted on the server computing system204-1 and served to the browser of the client computing system 208-1.The applications then serve pages that allow entry of details andfurther pages that allow entry of more details.

Any application and other scripted code components may be stored on acomputing machine readable medium which, when executed on the servercauses the server to perform those functions. In an embodiment, thesoftware used to facilitate the functions and processes described hereincan be embodied onto a computing machine readable medium such ascomputer readable medium. As discussed above a computing machinereadable medium includes any mechanism that provides (e.g., stores)information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). Forexample, a computing machine readable medium includes read only memory(ROM); random access memory (RAM); magnetic disk storage media; opticalstorage media; flash memory devices; DVD's, EPROMs, EEPROMs, FLASH,magnetic or optical cards, or any type of media suitable for storingelectronic instructions. The information representing the apparatusesand/or methods stored on the computing machine readable medium may beused in the process of creating the apparatuses and/or methods describedherein.

Some portions of the detailed descriptions which follow are presented interms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on databits within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are the means used by those skilled in the dataprocessing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their workto others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally,conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps leading to a desiredresult. The steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physicalquantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take theform of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored,transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It hasproven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, torefer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters,terms, numbers, or the like. These algorithms may be written in a numberof different software programming languages such as C, C++, SQL, Java,or other variants of such or similar languages. Also, an algorithm maybe implemented with lines of code in software, configured logic gates insoftware, or a combination of both. In an embodiment, the logic consistsof electronic circuits that follow the rules of Boolean Logic, softwarethat contain patterns of instructions, or any combination of both.

It should be noted that the configuration of the diagram illustrated inFIG. 2 is for illustrative purposes only, and the actual configurationsmay vary. There might be different configurations of servers, firewalls,clients, and devices. For example, the devices may be anything fromiPads, to Autos, to TV devices, and so on.

It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar termsare to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and aremerely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unlessspecifically stated otherwise as apparent from the above discussions, itis appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizingterms such as “processing” or “computing” or “calculating” or“determining” or “displaying” or the like, refer to the action andprocesses of a computing system, or similar electronic computing device,that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical(electronic) quantities within the computing system's registers andmemories into other data similarly represented as physical quantitieswithin the computing system memories or registers, or other suchinformation storage, transmission or display devices.

Overview

As the Internet continues to evolve into a more intelligent network ofinformation, there remains a significant gap between what the users wantand what or how the information is delivered and viewed by the users.Information is viewed by various portals or customized views. Currentportals and custom views have many limitations that embodiments of thepresent invention address. Following are some of the factors regardingthe limitations of the current search techniques: (a) Users may notaccurately understand when they should submit a query or that theirsituation requires a query; (b) It is almost impossible to use accuratesearch terms or keywords in a way that will yield exactly what the Usersare looking for; (c) Even if the accurate search terms are provided,changes in the User's Life State or the information environment maycause what is considered accurate during one time period to becomeinaccurate during another time period; (d) Because of a User's privacyrights, the information delivered to a portal or customized view willalways be inadequate by failing to accurately take into considerationfactors hidden or limited by the privacy rights; (e) Because of privacyrights, the information provided on portals or custom views will beinvasive to a User's privacy rights, as the current method of managingprivacy rights is flawed; f) There are no user feedback mechanisms tobilaterally advise the portal or custom view information providers oftheir accuracy, allowing the providers to more effectively tailor theirresults for each User; (g) Since the number of organizations and indexedinformation is theoretically infinite, there are insufficient mechanismsthat causes the providers of portal or custom view information to use amethod of continuous improvement and focus to yield fewer more relevantquery results. Instead, there is the appearance of some relevantinformation that has varying degrees of accuracy; (h) There areinsufficient methods or instruments that allow information in a portalor custom view to change, update, or morph according to the User'sinformational requirements (driven by the User's situation, querycriteria, or changes that modify the relevance of the query); (i) Thereare insufficient methods or instruments that allow the structure,sequencing, and order of the components and sections of the portal orcustom view to change, reorder, or rehash what or how the information isdisplayed, according to the User's information requirements (driven bythe User's situation, query criteria, or changes that modify therelevance of the query); (j) There are no feedback mechanisms thatconvey to the User the relevance and accuracy of the informationdelivered, as compared to the User's Life State and situation, which isdisplayed in the portal or custom view.

Embodiments of the invention fully utilize the information about auser's life to enable delivering of filtered and customized information,through dynamically changing areas within the life view, according tothe changes in the user's life, to the users. The information about theuser's life is also referred to as a life state, while how theinformation is used, displayed, ordered, and filtered is referred to asthe life view. The life state may consist of many categories, which aredynamically used and updated by the life view. A user may grant thirdparties access to the user's life state by setting security features andgatekeeping features. As will be described, embodiments of the presentinvention may include an information delivery system that deliversfiltered information to the users. The information delivery systemenables third parties to have access to the users' life states, asallowed in transactions between the users and the third parties. Eachuser is associated with a unique life state. The life state is used asfilters or as a basis for customized services (e.g., web sites, emails,etc.). Embodiments of the invention also include an architecture thatincludes a centralized server computer system connected to the Internetand configured to deliver information to the users. The centralizedserver computer system is referred to herein as an information deliveryserver. The information delivery server may be configured to provide theusers a life state interface to enable the users to provide the valuesfor the attributes and sub-attributes associated with their life states.The information delivery server is coupled with a database configured tostore the values for the attributes and the sub-attributes. Theinformation delivery server is configured to provide the users aninterface to configure their own portals, which are referred to as theusers' life view. The users may use their life views to view thefiltered information. The information delivery server may also beconfigured to enable the users and the third parties to rate oneanother. Replication may be involved to make access, delivery and updateoperations by the information delivery server more efficient.

Life State

FIG. 3A illustrates an example structure of a life view, in accordancewith some embodiments. A life view may display many category sections,custom category sections, or dynamic category sections. Each categorysection may consist of many attributes. Each attribute may consist ofmany sub-attributes. Together, the category sections, the attributes,and the sub-attributes may conceptually display information about theuser from many different views. The category sections, attributes andsub-attributes may be related to one another in a top-down relationshipand/or laterally—enhancing the interpretations of each attribute value.The category sections, the attributes, and the sub-attributes may bedisplayed as defined by the user's criteria, Life State, and theinformation delivered. In some embodiments, they may also vary based onstandards and changes by industry authorities, since industryauthorities play a major role in delivering information to a user's LifeState.

Referring to FIG. 3A, the life view may consist of view positioningstates 310. Although not illustrated, a view positioning state mayconsist of many deeper levels of positioning states. For example, underthe positioning state 1, there be view positioning state 1.1, viewpositioning state 1.2, view positioning state 1.1.2, etc. A life viewderives multiple categories, attributes, and subattributes from a lifestate. A life state may consist of multiple categories 315. It isenvisaged that each of the many aspects of a user's life can be mappedto a category of the life state, which may be used by a view positioningstate. Each of the categories 315 may consist of many attributes 320 andsub-attributes 325. Although not illustrated, each of the sub-attributes325 may consist of many deeper levels of sub-attributes. For example,under the sub-attribute 1, there may be sub-attribute 1.1, sub-attribute1.2, etc. The categories, attributes, and/or sub-attributes may bedynamic and may be displayed by life view, according to the lifepositioning states. For example, new categories, attributes, and/orsub-attribute values may be added, removed, or moved to anothercategory, attribute, or sub-attribute. The life positioning viewdefinition that is connected to that category, attribute, orsub-attribute will determine how and where the changed, moved, added, orremoved values are displayed. The ability to view the updatedcategories, the attributes and the sub-attributes illustrate the dynamicnature of the life view.

View positioning states may alter how and to what extent the life viewdisplays life state categories, attributes, and sub-attributes. Viewpositioning states may use life state categories, attributes, orsub-attributes. View positioning states may also use information about auser's life view preferences that is mutually exclusive of life statecategories, attributes, and sub-attributes. View positioning states mayalso be used in combination with each other. Following are some possibleview positioning states. There may be a view positioning state“Sports-Participation” which may be used to place a higher positioningpriority in the user's life view for life state category, attribute, orsub-attribute information relating to sports programs the user isparticipating in. “Sports-Dependents-Participation” may be used to placehigher positioning priority in the user's life view for life stateinformation relating to sports programs that a life state user'sdependents are participating in. A view positioning state“Auto-Purchase” may be used to place a higher positioning priority inthe user's life view for life state information relating to userspecific automobile related information. View positioning states mayalso be used in combination with each other. For example, there may beview positioning states “Health-Condition” and “Work-TemporaryLocations”, where the “Health-Condition” view positioning state mayprioritize a user's life state category, attribute, or sub-attributesrelating to a chronic condition, and the “Work-Temporary Locations” viewpositioning state may also cause relevant medical facilities to beprioritized that relate to the chronic condition in the“Health-Condition” view positioning state, but may be derived from theuser's temporary work location which may be defined in the“Work-Temporary Locations” view positioning state. View positioningstates may have dates they are effective or not effective, active or notactive, and other criteria that may relate to the view positioningstate, a relationship with one or more other view positioning states, orrelationships with categories, attributes, or sub-attributes from theuser's life state. For some embodiments, the values for the viewpositioning states, attributes and sub-attributes may be automaticallyprovided. Other example view positioning states, categories, attributes,or sub-attributes are included in the corresponding provisionalapplication which is described in the related application section at thetop of this document.

As the user's life changes, the values for the user's life state,categories, attributes, sub-attributes may be updated, which may updatethe user's life view As the life state, categories, attributes orsub-attributes change, the view positioning states may determine how andif the life state, category, attribute or sub-attribute information isdisplayed in the user's life view. For example, the view positioningstate may determine the categories, attributes, or sub-attributes thatmay be displayed because of a state of a user's life, which may bedetermined by information in the user's categories, attributes, orsub-attributes, or by a date or range of dates, by current events, byaging, by affiliations, memberships, hereditary relationships, socialrelationships, professional relationships, event outcomes, physicalstates, location, or other life related states. For some embodiments,the categories, attributes and sub-attributes may be automaticallypositioned. The number combinations of categories, attributes, andsub-attributes (and deeper levels of sub-attributes) may be extensive,and may represent a snap shot of the life of a user, which may requireview positioning state filtering. It may be noted that this is differentfrom the traditional portals displayed/used by current systems since theinformation included in a traditional portal is very limited and onlychanges based on some discrete user-defined, simple parameters. Forexample, a traditional portal may display a user's investment holdingsfor a specific company or exchange, the zip code defined local weather,or a list of local movies currently playing. Following in example, thelife view may display all local movie listings all of the time, if theview positioning state is defined in this matter. Continuing to followon this example, the view positioning state may be enhanced to onlydisplay the movie listings on certain days of the week and may also onlydisplay the movies that have certain user specific categories,attributes and sub-attributes that are specifically relevant to theuser, as may be defined in the user's life state. An option may beprovided to enable the users to select using the automatic setting oflife view parameters. For example, a new user may select this option tospeed up the process of setting up the user's life view. The user maythen update the life positioning state values as necessary. The lifeview may be configured to provide interview tools, wizards, orapplications that gather and map the information about the life view tothe relevant positioning states, life view areas, attributes andsub-attributes.

FIG. 3B illustrates an example of a life view 330, in accordance withsome embodiments. The life views 330 and lifestates 325 may representthe life views and states of many users. The life view information isderived from the life state information. In the current example, thecollection of life view 330 includes life states 325, which includes thelife states 350 and 355. The funnel shape associated with each of thelife states 350 and 355 illustrates the concept of using a life state tofunnel or filter the information into the life view 330. The life statehelps funneling the information available from the third parties so thatonly filtered information is pushed by the third parties. In otherwords, the life state enables the third parties to push the right typeof information to the user. The positioning states determine howinformation is displayed in each life view area. Positioning states maybe defined, use information in a category, attribute, or sub-attributefrom the life state 325, or be a combination of positioning statedefinition and life state 325 information. For example, a user maydefine a positioning state to display the current movies playing intheir area, and the list of movies may be ordered by movies that theuser would enjoy seeing the most according to the life state 325information.

The life view may also be used in other portals or compilations of auser's information. In the case of other portal web sites, the life viewenables other web sites to display customized information views that mayinclude information and life view settings matching what the user isinterested in. In the case of search using a search engine, the lifeview may enhance the search results generated by the search engine.

FIG. 3C illustrates an example of third party information beingdelivered to the user's life view with some embodiments. A user hascomplete control how the access to the user's life state is granted. Thegranting of the access can be at the category level, the attributelevel, the sub-attribute level, or combinations thereof. A third partycan be granted permission to access various areas of the user's lifestate. The third party uses and delivers information to the useraccording to the life state security and gate keeping attributes.

As illustrated, the life state is populated with information deliveredby third parties 330, 332, 334, 336, and 338. The arrows from the thirdparties to the user's categories 310, attributes 348, and sub-attributes342 indicate information delivered to the user, according to the user'ssecurity and gatekeeping attributes defined in the life state. Thepositioning states 350 may determine third party or other filters,grouping, display characteristics, frequencies, and other parameters forthe user's life view 360. The life view may display information frommultiple third parties, as defined by the positioning states. Thepositioning states may include dynamic information delivered from thethird parties. Positioning states may also include information regardingthe delivered information quality and alignment. For example, a user mayselect to display new product introductions relating to laptops for thatweek, and the third party that delivers the information to the user withthe highest alignment and quality from the user's life state may beselected in the positioning state as the highest priority to displayinformation in a given life view area.

FIG. 3D illustrates an example diagram of a group of partners, inaccordance with some embodiments. The diagram includes life viewssimilar to the life views described with FIG. 3B. For some embodiments,a third party may have to be approved before it can be grantedpermission to one or more access groups, where a life view may displayinformation from those access groups. A set of criteria may be used toevaluate and approve a third party. The set of criteria may bedetermined by a management team or an administrator associated with theinformation delivery system, which in turn supplies the life view withinformation. For example, the criteria may include one or more of thefollowing: the ability of the third party to provide information to theusers according to their life states, the type of service, merchandiseand/or information that the third party is offering and whether they mapto the categories, attributes and sub-attributes defined by the lifestate structure, the ability of the third party to map its services andinformation to the life state structure, the reputation of the thirdparty, the likelihood that the third party will continue to perform as apartner and a leader in the category/attribute/sub-attribute that it isassigned to, etc. Other criteria may also be used. This criteriadetermines the extent, quality, and type of information that is suppliedto the life view, through the life state.

Once a third party is approved, it becomes a partner. A license may begranted to the third party. The license may give the third partypermission to copy the users' life states for a defined period. Theremay be an expiration date, and the license may need to be renewed. Thethird parties use the copies of the life states to filter itsinformation, which may be displayed through the life view, or the thirdparties may customize its web site for the users when the users visitthe websites of the third parties. Depending on the actions of a thirdparty, a license may be active, suspended, or revoked. Other licensestatus may also be used. Security credentials including useridentification (ID) and password may be assigned to an approved thirdparty. A third party who has been approved is referred to herein as apartner. For some embodiments, only those partners whose status isactive may be granted permission to access the users' life states. Theremay be different types of partner. For example, a partner may be anindividual, an organization, a governmental agency, etc. The partnersmay also be defined based on the type of services they offer. Forexample, the type “Search Engines” may be used for Microsoft and Googlewhen they become partners, and the partner type “Government” may be usedwhen the Medicare office may want to access the users' life states forbenefits administration. The information delivered by these partners,through the user's life state, is displayed in the user's life view withthe embodiments described herein.

In the current example, the block 324 represents all of the partners.They include the partners 360, 361 and 362. These partners have beengranted permission to the life state 370. The life state may feed intoone or multiple life views as defined by the user and embodimentsherein. As described with FIG. 3C, the level of permission of each ofthe partners 360, 361 and 362 may be different. The directions of thearrows from the partners 360, 361 and 362 to the life state 370illustrate the filtering of the information from the partners. For someembodiments, the partners may push information to the users, which maybe displayed in the user's life view, and they may also offer auto-loadprogram that automatically populates user attributes in the life state,which may be displayed in the user's life view. For example, Amazon.commay push information to a user (such as new technology productreleases), and Amazon.com may also offer an auto-load program thatpopulates attributes relating to technology adoption, asset inventory,etc. In either case, this information pushed by Amazon may be displayedin the user's life view, defined by the user and the embodiments herein.

FIG. 3E illustrates an example diagram of a life view, in accordancewith some embodiments. The information delivery server may be configuredto receive the filtered information from the partners 324 on behalf ofthe users and present that information to the user via their life views370. Each user is associated with a life view. In the current example,the life view 351 is associated with the life state 350, the life view356 is associated with the life state 355, and the life view 361 isassociated with the life state 360. To access the filtered information,the users may need to log in to the information delivery server usingtheir user IDs and passwords. The filtered information may also bestored as floating variable, cache, memory, etc. on any device or systemthat accesses the filtered information. The directions of the arrowsfrom the life states 350, 355 and 360 to the respective life views 351,356 and 361 illustrate the flow of the filtered information to the lifeviews. The information available via the life view 351 may be differentfrom the information available via the life view 356 because the lifestate 350 may be different from the life state 355. FIG. 3E alsoillustrates the overall concepts of embodiments of the present inventionwhere the collection of life states 325 is used to filter theinformation from the partners 324 to create the filtered information (ora subset of the information of the partner), where the filteredinformation is presented to the users via the life views 370. For someembodiments, the pulling of the filtered information from the partnersis automatic. Some embodiments may include partners' portals pulling thefiltered information.

Server Applications

FIG. 4 illustrates example applications that may be used to enable theusers to receive the filtered information from the partners, inaccordance with some embodiments. The information delivery server 400may include user administration application 401, life state application405, partner interface application 410, information filteringapplication 415, life view application 420, change alert application425, rating application 430 and marketplace application 435. It may benoted that even though these applications are described herein asseparate applications, the functionalities of two or more of them may becombined into one application. These applications may be used to pullfiltered information from various resources. The resources may includeInternet websites associated with the partners. Non-Internet resourcesmay also be used. For example, a user's life state may be replicated ondevices, appliances, or any means that allows the user to control how togrant permission to the user's life state, the third parties to accessthe user's life state, and the pushing of the filtered information bythe third parties on behalf of the user. It may be noted that not everydevice or appliance used in embodiments of the invention is a filteredinformation pushing mechanism. That is, some devices may be registeredin the core system to receive the pushed information, and then thedevices may only functions in the ecosystem as a conduit for the pushingof the filtered information to the users.

The life states of all of the users may be securely stored in thedatabase associated with the information delivery server 400 and in arelational structure with tables and fields arranged in ways that arelogical and meaningful to the user. When the users update their lifestates, the updated values may be stored in the same database. It ispossible that the updates may also be propagated to the Life View andother replicated systems, devices, appliances that locally store thevalues, as well as third parties that customize their web sitesaccording to these values. This propagation would be similar to a changetrigger.

For some embodiments, a copy of the user's life view may be downloadedand stored in the memory of the client computing system associated withthe user. The copy in the client computing system is referred to as alocal copy of the life view. It is possible that, in some embodiments,only a portion of the information or only related information may bestored in the client computing system. This is because getting the exactcopy may be too big.

Sometimes it might be just the user id that's stored in floatingvariables, memory, cache, etc., which then pulls the user's life statewhen needed.

The partner interface application 410 may be configured to enable theinformation delivery server 400 to communicate with one or more serversof the partners. For example, this may enable the partners to access theusers' life states as defined by the users' gate keeping and securityfeatures. This may include interfacing with the partners to enable theusers' life views, customized websites, filtered search results, etc.

The information filtering application 415 may be configured to share thelife states of a user with the partners, limited to the level ofpermission granted by the user. The information filtering application415 may also be configured to apply the security and the gate keepingfeatures set by the user. As described, the partners may use the user'slife state to filter their information. The information filteringapplication 415 may receive the filtered information from the partnersand present the filtered information to the user via the user's lifeview. As will be described, the partners may procure the life states viaa marketplace.

The life view application 420 may be configured to allow the users todefine how the information provided to the users may be presented andviewed, according to the embodiments herein. The life view application420 may be configured to provide a layout interface to allow the user todesign the look and feel of the user's life view according to userdefined settings and dynamic settings that change according to theuser's life state. The layout interface may include parameters tocontrol the fields, links and dimensions of the layout. The user maydefine multiple layouts that change according to event rules defined bythe user and the user's life state. For example, the user may defineparameters that cause the layout to emphasize on financial and economicinformation when there is a significant swing in the financial market.The layout interface may allow the user to define different informationregions that change according to user defined settings and the user'slife state. Each of the information regions may focus on the informationthat corresponds to one or more aspects of the user's life. Asmentioned, each of the users may be associated with a life view. Theuser accesses the life view by logging into the information deliverysystem using the assigned user ID and password. The life views, theirconfigurations, layouts, and information regions may be stored in thedatabase associated with the information delivery server 400.

The change alert application 425 may be configured to notify thepartners and the users whenever there is a change that may affect theprocess of proving the filtered information to the users, and thechanges may be reflected in the user's life view. The changes mayoriginate from the partners and/or users. For example, the change may benecessary to address complaints or suggestions from many users and/orpartners, and the changes may block or alter the information provided bythat partner in the user's life view. The changes may originateinternally by a management team associated with the information deliverysystem to enhance the information filtering services for the partnersand/or the users, and the enhancements may be reflected in the user'slife view. For example, it may be necessary to add a new category, tomigrate an attribute from one category to another category, to delete anattribute, to change the meaning of an attribute, etc., and the changesmay be reflected in the user's life view. The changes may originateexternally by others. The change alert application 425 may also beconfigured to notify a partner when the user modifies the user's lifestate, and the changes may be reflected in the user's life view.Similarly, the change alert application 425 may notify a user when thepartner's ability to provide its information is modified.

The rating application 430 is configured to improve the quality of thefiltered information. This includes providing a mechanism to allow theusers to rate the partners as well as a mechanism to allow the partnersto rate the users. The rating of the partners is based on whether thefiltered information pulled from the partners is aligned with the lifestates of the users. The rating may be based on a collection offeedbacks from many users. This helps the partners to fine tune theirfiltering mechanism if they receive low ratings. This also helpsidentifying the partners who consistently fail to comply with thefiltering requirements. The user's life view may also allow users torate partners and delete or hide partner delivered information from theuser's life view, according to the partner's information quality. Forexample, a partner who provides unsolicited advertising informationshould get a low rating and the user may delete or hide the partner'sinformation from the life view, because it abuses the informationdelivery system. A consequence for a partner who gets a low rating is asuspension or revocation of its license, and the user's life view maydelete or hide the partner's information by the user's directmodification to the life view or by the user's designation of the lowrating in the user's life state. Following are some conceptual examplesof the ratings for a partner, and these ratings may be viewed, modified,or accessed in the user's life view or the user's life state:

None—The information from the partner is not aligned with the user'slife state

Low—The information from the partner is minimally aligned with theuser's life state

Moderate—The information from the partner is mostly aligned with theuser's life state

High—The information from the partner is significantly aligned with theuser's life state

In order for a user to receive accurate filtered information, it may benecessary for the user to keep the user's life state updated or utilizeautomatic loader programs that accomplish the same. This is because theuser is rated based on whether the user's life state is aligned with theuser's behavior whenever applicable. If a partner determines that theuser's life state is not accurate, the partner may notify the user ofthe alignment issue, through a system of ratings. This notification maybe visible in the user's life view. If the user's behavior remainsnon-aligned with the user's life state for an extended period of time,the information provided to the user may be limited or less accurate.Following are some conceptual examples of the ratings for a user, andthese ratings may be viewed, modified, or accessed in the user's lifeview or the user's life state:

None—The user's transactions are not aligned with the user's life state

Low—The user's transactions are minimally aligned with the user's lifestate

Moderate—The user's transactions are mostly aligned with the user's lifestate

High—The user's transactions are significantly aligned with the user'slife state

The marketplace application 435 may be configured to implement anexchange or a market where the users and the partners participate insell and buy transactions. In some embodiments, the marketplace may beimplemented as a secure web portal that enables the partners to procurethe users' life state according to the security, gatekeeping, andmarketplace features. For some embodiments, the marketplace application435 may be implemented as an auction portal with bidding and purchasingoptions. Other purchasing options (e.g., fixed price, etc.) may also beused. The auction portal may allow searchable bids and reverse bids bythe partners and the users. Bid information may be stored in the secureddatabase associated with the information delivery server. The user'smarketplace transactions and activity may be displayed in the user'slife view.

Security and Gatekeeping Features

A partner may access the life states of the user according to the user'ssecurity and gatekeeping features. Referring to FIG. 3D, a user may usethe security feature 370 and the gatekeeping feature 371 to control howthe information is filtered so that the user's life view will receivethe most relevant and most desirable information. The user may use thesecurity feature 370 to control the visibility at the global level,partner level, category level, attribute level or sub-attribute level.The security features set at the global level apply to all categories,attributes, and sub-attributes. The security features set at thecategory level apply to all corresponding attributes and sub-attributes.The security features set at the attribute level apply to allcorresponding sub-attributes and so on. When there is a difference amongthe settings of the security features, the settings of the securityfeatures at the lower level takes precedence over the settings of thesecurity features at the corresponding higher level. For example, if auser sets a value at the global level, and then sets another value atthe category level, the value at the category level will determine thesetting of the security features. Following are some examples settingsof the security features:

Not available—No information relating to the category, attribute, orsub-attribute is available to any partner or any other parties todeliver information to the user's life view

Available only to preferred/approved list—No information relating to thecategory, attribute, or sub-attribute is available to any partner orother parties unless they are included in the user's list of approved orpreferred partners and/or parties to deliver information to the user'slife view

Available—Information relating to the category, attribute, orsub-attribute is available to any partner to deliver information to theuser's life view

Available to content providers—No information relating to the category,attribute, or sub-attribute is available to any partner to deliverinformation to the user's life view

unless the partner is a content provider or the partner is in the listof approved or preferred content providers

Available to advertisers—No information relating to the category,attribute, or sub-attribute is available to any partner to deliverinformation to the user's life view

unless the partner or other party is an advertiser or is in the user'slist of approved or preferred advertisers

The gatekeeping feature 371 illustrates an option that a user may use tocontrol how much information the user is willing to receive from whichpartners into the user's life view. The user may use the gatekeepingfeature 371 to control how an attribute can be used to filterinformation from a partner and the volume of the information deliveredto the user's life view. The gatekeeping features set at the globallevel apply to all categories, attributes, and sub-attributes. Thegatekeeping features set at the category level apply to allcorresponding attributes and sub-attributes. The gatekeeping featuresset at the attribute level apply to all corresponding sub-attributes andso on. When there is a difference among the settings of the gatekeepingfeatures, the gatekeeping features set at the lower level takesprecedence over the gatekeeping features set at the corresponding higherlevel. For example, if a user sets a gatekeeping value at the globallevel, and then set another conflicting gatekeeping value at thecategory level, the gatekeeping value at the category level willprevail. Some examples of the gatekeeping features settings include:

No gatekeeping—All of the information is passed to the user's life stateand then to the user's life view through the funnel

Approved list—The information is passed to the user's life state andthen to the user's life view if the information is from a partner thatis in the list of the user's approved or preferred partner

Content providers—The information is passed to the user's life state andthen to the user's life view if the information is from a partner who isa content provider or if the partner is in the user's list of approvedor preferred content providers

Advertisers—The information is passed to the user's life state and thento the user's life view if the information is from an advertiser or ifthe information is from a partner who is in the user's list of approvedor preferred advertisers.

None—No information is passed to the user's life state and then to theuser's life view

For some embodiments, there may also be many other gatekeeping controls,such as frequency and precedence controls that will affect how thesystem queues up information from partners for the user's lifeview—which will be a key control in promoting partners to only push theinformation that really counts, while the user receives only theinformation that really counts.

In general, gatekeeping features are different from security in thatthey determine how information is delivered and displayed to the user'slife view. This includes controlling the frequency, extent, type, andvolume of filtered information that is pushed by the partner. This iswhere the marketplace implementation becomes important. When a userwants to allow information for a specific attribute to be sold in themarketplace, but no information is delivered for that attribute, thenthe security settings would allow visibility in the marketplace, and thegatekeeping settings would not allow information delivery to the portal(or when surfing to external sites).

Automatic Populating and Updating Attribute Values

For some embodiments, the life state application 405 described with FIG.4 may be configured to auto-populate the attributes and sub-attributeswith values. The values may be derived from the partners. It is possiblethat the partners may accumulate extensive information about a user'sbehavior, which in turn gives them the ability to populate the usersattribute values according to this behavior. For example, a set ofattributes for a user's asset inventory may include various products,etc. Amazon.com could easily populate the asset inventory according tothe user's purchase history. A user's behavior may also be accumulatedby the user's life view, by tracking which links or other interactions auser makes within their life view. There may be an option to allow theuser to select the auto-populating feature.

For some embodiments, the life state application 405 described with FIG.4 may be configured to automatically update the life state of a user.There may be a setting that enables the user to indicate that theautomatic update of the user's life state is allowed. The updates may bebased on transactions that the user engages in or behavior the userengages in while using their life view, and may be performedperiodically. It is possible that user's behavior may not be consistentwith the user's life state. For example, the user indicates in the lifestate category and attribute values that would lead to avoidance ofwater sports related transaction behavior. However, through the user'slife view, the user frequently views websites that relate to watersports. In this scenario, the life state application 405 may modify theuser's life state to align with the user's behavior. This may includeautomatically translating a user's life view behavior and interactioninto values for the attributes and/or sub-attributes. The user can alsoreview, assess, and override any values that are set from an autoupdate, if the manual setting of the values better reflects the user'slife state. This ensures that the user's life state is up to date, asrealized through the user's behavior in the life view.

For some embodiments, the functionality of auto-updating andauto-loading can initially set to baselines, but it can also updateattribute values at the users' discretion. There might be options orparameters on the auto-update program such as “Do not update values thathave been manually updated.” This would mean only null values or thosepreviously set by the auto-update program would be updated.

Network with Partner Servers

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a network with an information deliveryserver, in accordance with some embodiments. The network may include aninformation delivery server 505 coupled with database 510 and connectedto network 202. Also connected to the network 202 are client computingsystems 500 and 501, partner servers 515 and 525 and their respectivedatabases 520 and 530. The client computing systems 500, 501 may beconfigured with browser software to access the services of theinformation delivery server 505 using the Internet. The client computingsystems 500, 501 may be connected to the network 202 via wired orwireless communication (e.g., RF, Bluetooth, etc.). For example, a usermay use the client computing system 500 to register with the informationdelivery server 505, input values to configure the user's life state,and set up security features and gatekeeping features, which in turnprovide information to the user's life view. The user may use the clientcomputing system 500 to log in to the information delivery server 505and access the user's life view to view the filtered information. Theuser's life state, life view, security features, gatekeeping features,and filtered information may be stored in the database 510. The networkinfrastructure described in FIG. 5 may also be used to enable accessingpartner websites, partner content, performing web searches from withinthe life view using partner search engines, and enabling the partners toparticipate in the marketplace to procure the life state information.

Embodiments of the invention may also include mobile-enabledimplementations to enable the users to user the mobile devices tocommunicate with the information delivery server. As illustrated in FIG.5, the mobile device 500 may be used by a user to connect to theinformation delivery server 505 via the network 202. Having the mobilecapability may enable the users to provide updates on an impulse basis,especially at a time when the user is experiencing something that mayneed to be reflected in the user's life state. The information deliveryserver 505 may enable the user to download a mobile application for thispurpose. The mobile application may include user interface that makes iteasier to provide information about the user's experience. For example,the user may be watching a movie, and the user may use the mobile deviceto indicate the name of the movie and how much the user enjoys watchingthat movie. That action will be analyzed by the information deliveryserver and the user's entertainment attribute may be updated. Theseembodiments may be immediately available and reflected in the user'slife view.

Mirroring and Distributed Processing

Referring to FIG. 5, in some embodiments, there may be one or moremirrored servers 506 configured to perform tasks similar to theinformation delivery servers 505 to accommodate the demand and usage bymany users. These mirrored servers may be located at differentgeographical areas. For example, at a first site, there may be one ormore mirrored servers 506. Each of the mirrored servers 506 may beassociated with a mirrored database 511 which may be configured to storeinformation similar to the database 510. Further, there may be multiplemirrored sites, each having similar hardware and software configurationand set up as the first site. The multiple sites may collaborate withone another in a distributed manner to help speed up the processenabling the users to set up and maintain their life states, interactingwith the partner servers, receiving the filtered information from thepartners, enabling the users to configure their life views, presentingthe filtered information to the users' life views, etc. Using mirroredservers and distributed processing may help the users to view mostrelevant and accurate filtered information in their life views in nearreal time.

It should be noted that there are many different distributed processingarchitectures and the description provided here is not meant to limit toa particular architecture, but rather to convey that distributedprocessing may be implemented to provide better user experience for someembodiments.

Flow Diagrams

FIGS. 6-11 describe various processes that may be performed by theinformation delivery system and life view. Each process includesmultiple blocks, with each block representing one or more operations.The sequences of the blocks may vary depending on the implementations.Some operations may be combined while some operations may be separatedinto multiple operations.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example flow diagram of a process that may beperformed by an information delivery system to set up the life views, inaccordance with some embodiments. The process is associated withoperations that may be performed by the information delivery server 505described with FIG. 5. At block 605, the structure of a life view isdefined. This may include defining the categories, the attributes, thesub-attributes, the sub-attributes, the life positioning states, thelife positioning priorities, and any deeper level of life positioningstates and positioning priorities. For example, each of the attributes,sub-attributes, life positioning states, and life positioning prioritiesmay be represented by fields in a database table with each of the fieldshaving a value or as programming variables in RAM or cache, or as otherembodiments. Each time a new user is registered with the informationdelivery server 505, a life view may be associated with that user, asshown in block 610. The attributes, sub-attributes, life positioningstates, life positioning priorities, and dynamic layout and parametersassociated with the user's life view may be automatically given somevalues. These values may be derived from the offerings of the partners,as shown in block 615. At block 620, the user is allowed to updatevalues that determine how and if these attributes and/or sub-attributesare displayed. This may be due to changes to the user's life and how theuser's life positioning state, life positioning priorities, and user'slife state is defined. At block 625, options may be made available toenable the users to set security features and gatekeeping features, andother layout and information parameters to customize the user's lifeview. As described, these features allow the users to configure thevisibility of the user's life view and how or from whom the informationis to be pulled on behalf of the user.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example flow diagram of a process that may beperformed by an information delivery system to allow the users to viewthe filtered information, in accordance with some embodiments. Theprocess is associated with operations that may be performed by theinformation delivery server 505 described with FIG. 5. When a userregisters with the information delivery system and create a useraccount, that user account is associated with a user's life view, asshown in block 705. The user may be provided options to configure theuser's life view. This may include configuring the layout for the user'slife view. At block 710, one or more partners may access the user's lifestate. The access of the user's life state is based on permissionsgranted by the users. The partners may use the user's life state togenerate filtered information that is aligned with the user's lifestate. At block 715, the filtered information is pushed by the partners.At block 720, the filtered information is presented to the user via theuser's life view, according to the user's life positioning states andlife positioning priorities.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example flow diagram of a process that may beperformed on an information delivery server to enable automaticallyupdating the user's life state, in accordance with some embodiments. Theprocess is associated with operations that may be performed by theinformation delivery server 505 described with FIG. 5. The process mayinclude tracking the user's behavior when the user visits a website ofthe partner. As described above, when the user visits the website of apartner, the partner may recognize that the user is a member of the sameinformation delivery system that the partner is associated with. Thepartner may customize the content of its website, filter the searchresults using this information, or customize the content of the user'slife view, according to the embodiments herein. The account of the userand the account of the partner with the information delivery system maybe related or connected. The recognition may be based on the informationstored locally on the client computing system of the user.Alternatively, the user id may be locally stored or stored in temporaryinternet/buffer files by associating with another user login, and thenthe attribute values from the user's life state may be obtained,refreshed, or updated.

The tracking operation may include interacting with the partner's serverand receiving the tracking information from the partner's server, asshown in block 805. At block 810, a test is performed to determine ifthe user's behavior is aligned with the user's life state. If the user'sbehavior is aligned, the process flow from block 810 back to block 805and the determination may continue. However, from the block 810, if theuser's behavior is not aligned, the process flow to block 815, where theuser's life state may be automatically updated to reflect the user'sbehavior. From the block 815, the process may flow back to block 805 andthe determination may continue. For some embodiments, this process maybe performed periodically. An automatic update option may be selected bythe user. In this process, the users will also be provided with theattribute values that are not aligned, which may help the user andpartner migrate towards better alignment. The user's life view will beupdated according to these changes.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example flow diagram of a process used to rate apartner, in accordance with some embodiments. At block 905, the usersare enabled to provide rating information for a partner. The rating isbased on how the filtered information from the partners is aligned withthe users' life states. If the alignment is not as expected, the ratingmay be low. A rating scale may be set by the management team associatedwith the information delivery system. At block 910, a test is performedto determine if the rating is acceptable. If the rating is acceptable,the process may flow back to block 905 to collect more ratings. It maybe noted that the rating of the partner may be evaluated aftercollecting a large collection of rating from many users. From the block910, if it is determined that the rating is not acceptable, the processmay flow to block 915 where the information from the partner may belimited. For example, the information pushed by the partner may includeunsolicited and/or unwanted advertising information, and the informationdelivery system may partially or completely block the information fromthe partner. For some embodiments, if the partner's rating is low, thenthe user may or may not want to limit the information from that partner.In other words, a low alignment rating for the partner may notnecessarily mean the user shows less interest in the information pushedby the partner. If the user wants to further limit, reduce, or prohibitinformation from a given partner, the user can use the security andgatekeeping settings to do that. At block 920, the information deliverysystem may change the status of the partner if necessary. For example,the partner may be placed suspended and its status may be changed from“active” to “suspended.” This type of disciplinary action may beperformed in aggregate. It may be performed by an administrator orsomeone with such authority, and not likely a function of automation.Partner ratings and the user's management of a partner's informationdelivery may also be accessible and reflected in the user's life view.

At block 925, the partner may be notified about the rating and relatedchanges. For example, warnings may be sent to the partner to notify thepartner about the change in status. The partner may fine tune itsfiltering mechanism to improve alignment. The process may flow from theblock 925 to the block 905. The partner rating operations may beperformed periodically or as needed.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example flow diagram of a process used to rate auser, in accordance with some embodiments. At block 1005, the partnersare enabled to provide rating information for a user. As describedabove, a user's life state involves many aspects of the user's life, andit is expected to change as the user experiences changes in the user'slife. The changes may be reflected in the user's behavior when, forexample, the user visits a website of a partner. The partner may trackthe user's behaviors, compare those behaviors with the user's lifestate, and give the user a rating. At block 1010, a test is performed todetermine if the rating for the user is acceptable. As with the ratingfor a partner, a rating scale may be determined by the management team,and the scale may be the same or different from the scale used to ratethe partner. If the rating is not acceptable, the process may flow toblock 1015, where the information delivery system may perform operationsto restrict the amount of filtered information that is pushed on behalfof the user. Other operations may also be performed when the rating isnot acceptable. For example, warnings may be sent to the user to notifythe user of the low rating; requests may be sent to the user to notifythe user to update the user's life state; the status of the user may bechanged, etc. as shown in block 1020. From the block 1010, if the ratingis acceptable, the process may flow back to block 1005 to collect moreratings. It is possible that the rating of the user may be evaluatedafter collecting a large collection of rating from many partners. Fromthe block 1020, the process may also flow back to the block 1005. Theuser rating operations may be performed periodically or as needed.Embodiments of the invention may merely notify the users of the lowrating but may not cause any impact on the amount of filteredinformation being pushed to the user. As such the operations describedin block 1015 may not be performed. In these situations, the user mayuse the user ratings confidentially to manually work on improving theuser's life state or maybe just understanding it better. User ratingsand the partner's management of a user's life state may also beaccessible and reflected in the user's life view.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example flow diagram of a process that may beused to enable accessing the user's life view, in accordance with someembodiments. It may be noted that the operations described in thedifferent blocks of this process may not necessarily need to beperformed in sequence and some may be performed by different partners.The blocks are meant to convey different ways that the user's life viewmay be used in various situations.

At block 370, the user may use a partner's information on their lifeview to allow the partner to customize the user's visits to itswebsites, web pages, or other means of displaying information. This maybe useful when the user visits the partner's website. Information notconsistent with the user's life state or life view may be filtered fromthe website and only relevant information may be displayed. The partnermay associate the user id of the user with the user's life view or lifestate from the information delivery system, retrieve (or refresh orupdate) the user's life view, and customize its web pages or otherembodiments accordingly. The partner may provide a toggle to enable theuser to activate or deactivate the filtering of the partner'sinformation based on the user's life state or life view. At block 1120,the user may use the life view positioning states to determine how thevarious regions of the user's life view may be positioned for displayfor the user. At block 1130, the user may use the life view positioningpriority to determine how the various regions of the user's life viewmay be prioritized for positioning and displayed for the user.

From the descriptions above, embodiments of the inventions may include amethod for receiving information about and relevant to a user's lifefrom a user who is a registered member of an information deliverysystem. The information about and relevant to the user's life includesat least (a) demographic information, (b) ethnic information, (c) socialinformation, and (d) psychological information. The method also includesenabling the user to grant permissions to a partner to access theinformation about and relevant to the user's life, wherein the partneris also a registered member of the information delivery system, andwherein the user grants the permission to the partner by controllingvisibility of the partner to the information about and relevant to theuser's life and by controlling frequency, extent, type, and volume offiltered information that is pushed by the partner and displayed in theuser's life view. In addition, the method includes receiving thefiltered information from the partner, wherein the filtered informationis generated by the partner based on applying the information about andrelevant to the user's life to information of the partner, wherein theinformation about and relevant to the user's life is provided by theuser using a client computing system associated with the informationdelivery system, and wherein the information about and relevant to theuser's life is received by a server computing system associated with theinformation delivery system. Embodiments of the invention also include acomputer-readable media that includes instructions that perform theoperations similar to the method described above.

Although embodiments of this invention have been fully described withreference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be noted that variouschanges and modifications will become apparent to those skilled in theart. Such changes and modifications are to be understood as beingincluded within the scope of embodiments of this invention as defined bythe appended claims. For example, specific examples are provided forshapes and materials; however, embodiments include those variationsobvious to a person skilled in the art, such as changing a shape orcombining materials together. Further, while some specific embodimentsof the invention have been shown the invention is not to be limited tothese embodiments. For example, several specific modules have beenshown. Each module performs a few specific functions. However, all ofthese functions could be grouped into one module or even broken downfurther into scores of modules. Most functions performed by electronichardware components may be duplicated by software emulation and viceversa. The invention is to be understood as not limited by the specificembodiments described herein, but only by scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:Receiving, prioritizing, positioning, and displaying information aboutand relevant to a user's life from a user who is a registered member ofan information delivery system, wherein the information about andrelevant to the user's life includes at least (a) demographicinformation, (b) ethnic information, (c) social information, and (d)psychological information; enabling the user to grant permissions to apartner to access the information about and relevant to the user's life,wherein the partner is also a registered member of the informationdelivery system, and wherein the user grants the permission to thepartner by controlling visibility of the partner to the informationabout and relevant to the user's life and by controlling frequency,extent, type, and volume of filtered information that is pushed by thepartner, in order for the partner to display customized informationrelevant to the user's life view; and receiving the filtered informationfrom the partner, wherein the filtered information is generated by thepartner based on applying the information about and relevant to theuser's life to information of the partner, wherein the information aboutand relevant to the user's life is provided by the user using a clientcomputing system associated with the information delivery system,wherein the information about and relevant to the user's life isreceived by a server computing system associated with the informationdelivery system, and wherein the information about the user's life isreceived, prioritized, positioned, and displayed according to the user'slife.
 2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:providing a life view to enable the user to view the filteredinformation, wherein the filtered information may be a subset of theinformation of the partner, and wherein the life view associated withthe user is independently configurable from a life view associated withanother user of the information delivery system.
 3. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: providingand displaying information from a marketplace to enable partners toprocure the information about the user's life. Wherein the user mayprioritize, position, and display information regarding marketplaceinterests, bids, offers, and transactions.
 4. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 1, further comprising: establishing a data structure toenable the user to provide the information about and relevant to theuser's life, the data structure including fields related to one another,wherein each of the fields is associated with a value, and wherein thedata structure includes multiple levels such that a field at a lowerlevel is to provide more detail information and value than acorresponding field at a higher level. Wherein information may bedisplayed, prioritized, and positioned in a life view from multiplelevels according to the user's life.
 5. The computer-implemented methodof claim 4, further comprising: automatically populating the fields ofthe data structure with a set of baseline values; and enabling the userto update the baseline values and non-baseline values to accuratelyreflect the user's life. Wherein baseline information may be displayed,prioritized, and positioned in a life view from multiple levelsaccording to the user's life.
 6. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 5, further comprising: enabling the user to update the baselinevalues and the non-baseline values using a mobile computing system and amobile application associated with the information delivery system.Wherein information may be displayed, prioritized, and positioned in alife view on a computing system, mobile application, and by otherembodiments herein.
 7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,further comprising: enabling the user to rate the partner based onwhether the filtered information from the partner is aligned with theinformation about and relevant to the user's life; and enabling thepartner to rate the user based on whether the information about andrelevant to the user's life is aligned with behavior of the user whenthe user visits a website associated with the partner. Wherein the userrating for the partner may be used as a setting in the user'sprioritization, positioning, and displaying of that partner'sinformation in a life view. Wherein the partner rating for the user maybe visible in the user's prioritization, positioning, and displaying ofthat partner's information in a life view.
 8. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 1, further comprising: storing the information about andrelevant to the user's life and life view in a secured relationaldatabase associated with the information delivery system; and enablingthe information about and relevant to the user's life to be accessed bythe partner when the user visits a website of the partner; and enablingthe information about and relevant to the user's life to be customizedand accessed by the user through the user's life view.
 9. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein customized web pages arepresented to the user when the user visits the website of the partner,and wherein the customized web pages are generated by the partner basedon the information about and relevant to the user's life. Wherein theuser may access these customized web pages from a life view.
 10. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein filtered search resultsare presented to the user when the user visits the website of thepartner, and wherein the filtered search results are generated by thepartner based on search parameters provided by the user and based on theinformation about and relevant to the user's life. Wherein the searchparameters and search results generated by the partner may be factoredinto the information pushed by the partner into a life view.
 11. Acomputer-readable media that stores instructions, which when executed bya machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising: receivinginformation about a user's life from a user who is a registered memberof an information delivery system, wherein the information about theuser's life includes at least demographic, ethnic, social andpsychological information; enabling the user to set parameters tocontrol (a) access to the information about the user's life by a partnerand (b) volume and frequency of filtered information to be received fromthe partner on behalf of the user, wherein the partner is also aregistered member of the information delivery system; receiving thefiltered information from the partner, wherein the filtered informationis generated by applying the parameters to information of the partner;and prioritizing, positioning, and presenting the filtered informationto a user life view.
 12. The computer-readable media of claim 11,wherein the user further sets the parameters to control (a) frequency ofreceiving the filtered information from the partner, and (b) priority,order, and customized filtering of information to be delivered to a userlife view based on the user's life and display preferences.
 13. Thecomputer-readable media of claim 11, further comprising: establishing adata structure to enable the user to provide the information about theuser's life, the data structure including fields related to one another,wherein each of the fields is associated with a value representing oneaspect of the user's life; automatically populating the fields of thedata structure with a set of baseline values; enabling the user tomanually update the baseline values or non-baseline values to moreaccurately reflect the user's life; enabling the user to rate thepartner based on whether the filtered information pushed by the partneris aligned with the information about the user's life; and enabling thepartner to rate the user based on whether the information about theuser's life is aligned with behavior of the user when the user visits awebsite associated with the partner; and presenting the baseline valuesor updated values, and the partner and user ratings, in a user lifeview, according to the user's prioritization, positioning, and customdisplay settings.
 14. The computer-readable media of claim 13, furthercomprising: providing a marketplace for the partner or other users topurchase the information about the user's life; and enabling the partnerto use the information about the user's life to customize web pages ofthe partner when the user visits a web site of the partner; and enablingmarketplace information to be displayed in a user life view, accordingto priority, positioning, and custom display settings; and enabling auser to interact with and use marketplace information in the user's lifeview.
 15. The computer-readable media of claim 14, wherein themarketplace is an auction-based marketplace, wherein the customized webpages include web pages that present filtered search results when theweb site is associated with a search engine, and wherein the customizedlife view include filtered, prioritized, custom positioned information,and custom settings associated with a life state, market place, and lifeview.
 16. The computer-readable media of claim 13, further comprising:enabling the user to cause the values of the fields of the datastructure to be updated using a mobile application associated with theinformation delivery system; and wherein the user may access, interactwith, and modify settings for a life view according to the embodimentsherein.
 17. The computer-readable media of claim 16, wherein the mobileapplication is configured to enable the user to provide user experienceand to cause one or more values of the fields of the data structure tobe updated according to the user experience; and wherein the updatedinformation and user experience may be accessed, updated, and interactedwith in a user's life view.
 18. A system, comprising: an informationdelivery server connected to a network, the information delivery serverconfigured to: (a) enable a user to provide information about a user'slife using a client computing system coupled with the informationdelivery server, wherein the information about the user's life includesat least demographic, ethnic, social and psychological information, andwherein the information about the user's life is stored in a databasecoupled with the information delivery server, the client computingsystem connected to the network; (b) enable the user to set parametersthat control access to the information about the user's life by apartner and volume and frequency of information to be received from thepartner on behalf of the user, wherein the information received from thepartner is to be aligned with the information about the user's life, andwherein the partner is associated with a partner server connected to thenetwork; (c) enable the partner to rate the user based on whetherbehavior of the user when the user visits a web site of the partner isaligned with the information about the user's life; and (d) enable theuser to rate the partner based on whether the information received fromthe partner is aligned with the information about the user's life. (e)enable the user to access, update, and interact with a user life view,which contains custom information, customized according to theembodiments herein, wherein the custom information may be furthercustomized by prioritizing, positioning, and other user defined customsettings that change how the information is displayed to a user in auser life view.
 19. The system of claim 18, wherein the informationdelivery server is further configured to (a) provide a marketplace toenable the partner to purchase the information about the user's life and(b) provide a life view to present the information received from thepartner to the user according to priorities, positioning settings, andother user defined settings.
 20. The system of claim 18, wherein theuser and the partner are registered with the information deliveryserver, and wherein the information delivery server is furtherconfigured to (a) receive updated information about the user's life fromthe user via a mobile computing device, and (b) enable the partner toaccess the information about the user's life to customize the website ofthe partner according to the information about the user's life; and (c)enable the user to access, update, and interact with a user life viewvia a mobile computing device.